“The learning curve was really vertical,” he says, referring to both content (laws, policies, issues) and process (how things actually get done — or don’t — in Augusta). He was greeted by cuts to the Department of Health and Human Services (Stuckey, a former director at the People’s Regional Opportunity Program, sits on the Health and Human Services Committee) and a lack of revenue.

After schooling himself in the Maine budget, he discovered what he sees as hidden (or unexplored) revenue sources. He proposes that the state take a closer look at tax expenditures — exemptions and credits that comprise a large sum of money but aren’t reviewed with the same scrutiny as, say, the budget. Stuckey wants to assign a committee to review those expenditures each year. He also wants to ease some tax burdens by expanding the “circuit breaker” concept to the state earned-income tax return, and reconsider how the state can benefit from part-time residents and tourists.

Stuckey is a huge proponent of early childhood education, saying that by investing in such programs, the state would save in “health, juvenile justice, remedial academic services, and dental health” costs.

GEORGE VINCENT has one foot in the past. His campaign flyers show his kindergarten class on Peaks Island — his way of reintroducing himself to the island, where he lived until he was 8 years old, and part of the district he now hopes to represent. He’s a history buff with a knack for trivia. And he says the six years he spent representing Portland in the state legislature as a young man (from 1968-72 and then from 1980-82) inform his current candidacy.

“There were a lot of things I didn’t understand,” he says of his first time around, in his 20s. “I’ve got the time now — I’m older, more mature.”

And his goals are modest. He says “there isn’t much you can do,” especially as a new legislator, to affect big issues like budget cuts, property taxes, or job creation. “There are so many other things you can do up there,” he says — unsexy, nonpartisan things.

Vincent, for example, wants to “explore the possibility of eliminating the maximum size limit on lobsters,” a change that would hopefully allow local lobstermen to make more money.

He’s enjoyed his time campaigning on Peaks Island, he says, and has billed himself as “a candidate that understands island living.”

Brown-nosing and flip-flopping Two months ago, when Senator Scott Brown crossed party lines to help pass a jobs bill, the Phoenix noted the political convenience of that supposed show of independence — since other Republican senators were also voting with Democrats, Brown’s vote was unnecessary.

Know what you're doing Any idiot can be governor. I'm not saying Republican Governor-elect Paul LePage is such an idiot. But if it turns out he is, it's comforting to know that it won't make much difference.

The stain "If the diaper fits, you must acquit." According to press accounts from 2003, that was the wording on a sign carried at a State House rally by a supporter of Republican state Representative Robert Nutting of Oakland.

Hating the government you lead The Augusta Civic Center lobby swarmed with soldiers, security guards, legislators, lobbyists, and Republican ladies in nice dresses with "Volunteer" badges.

Flotsam and jetsam The list of young Maine politicians with serious prospects of someday being elected to higher office is shorter than Governor Paul LePage's temper.

Middle of the road LePage has accomplished something no Maine governor has ever been able to achieve: He's spread joy across the entire ideological spectrum.

Strange bedfellows It doesn't get weirder than this. A liberal Democrat from California wants to help conservative Republicans in Maine find somebody to run against moderate GOP US Senator Olympia Snowe.

Museum dreams This week, we're joining a guided tour of the Maine Museum of Political Paleontology. A docent is explaining to a group of schoolchildren what's happening in a scene depicting cave people trying to register to vote.

ALL THE WORLD'S A STAGE | July 24, 2014 When three theater companies, all within a one-hour drive of Portland, choose to present the same Shakespeare play on overlapping dates, you have to wonder what about that particular show resonates with this particular moment.

CHECKING IN: THE NEW GUARD AND THE WRITER'S HOTEL | July 11, 2014 Former Mainer Shanna McNair started The New Guard, an independent, multi-genre literary review, in order to exalt the writer, no matter if that writer was well-established or just starting out.

NO TAR SANDS | July 10, 2014 “People’s feelings are clear...they don’t want to be known as the tar sands capitol of the United States."